1966. On a bombing
raid over North Vietnam, Air Force Captain Pete Peterson is shot
down. He spends the next six years as a prisoner of war; his life
an endless cycle of isolation, interrogation, and torture. Thirty-one
years later. Douglas "Pete" Peterson returns to the land
of his enemy -- voluntarily. He is the first U.S. Ambassador to
Vietnam since the war -- and the first ever to Hanoi.

Today, Vietnam
is no longer "a war"; it is a country of 80 million people,
with a new generation eager to move on. And so is Pete Peterson.
Here in Vietnam where his life almost ended, he has found the promise
of renewal -- for his country, and for himself. His challenge is
to convince others that the time for U.S.-Vietnamese reconciliation
is now.

"I
want to heal the wounds between the United States and Vietnam.
It's a tragic history that we've shared as two peoples. No one
can change that, but there is a great deal we can all do about
the future. And that's why I'm in Vietnam."

For Pete
Peterson: Assignment Hanoi, the production team followed
the new ambassador for four months: from embassy briefings to remote
mountain tops where forensic experts searched for American MIA remains;
from a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop to Capitol Hill. What emerges
is a portrait of Pete Peterson, the Vietnamese and their mutual
efforts to mold a lasting relationship.